Work is a Four-Letter Word as UK Employees Return to Office Misery

As the nation returns to work, few business leaders have considered that their office environment might be the real reason employees donít like Mondays.

According to The Real British Office, a new report from international architects Gensler, based on research amongst service sector managers, Britainís offices are not highly rated by the people who work in them.

As the great British workforce returns to work after the summer break, its time for UK business to wake up to the fact that poor office design is a false economy, said Gary Wheeler, Director of Workplace at Gensler.

Office Shame
Only around half of office workers (52%) rate their working environment as above average, whilst close to one fifth (19%) would actually be embarrassed to show customers their office.

A shocking 58% of office workers believe their office has not been designed to help them do their job.

The research highlights the importance of office quality to job satisfaction, with four in five (79%) office workers considering quality of working environment very important to job satisfaction, and more than one third stating that working environment has been a factor in accepting or rejecting a job offer.

A Waste of Space
Office workers claimed that an improved workplace would increase employee productivity by 19% - an improvement equivalent to a 135 billion annual increase in the UKís service sector output. However, British business is missing out on these potential productivity gains, with the majority of office workers citing minimising costs as the main driver behind their officeís design.

Room with a View
In an ideal world, 35% of professionals would prefer an office with a sea view, 26% countryside, and 10% mountains. A frustrated 10% would settle for any view of the outside world, whist just 4% want a better view of the office and their team.

Office workers have strong ideas of how their working environment might be improved, with personal space (39%), climate control (24%) and daylight (21%) topping the list of crucial factors for a good working environment.

Why We Donít Like Mondays
IT problems top the list of most annoying office irritants (36% of those surveyed), followed by colleaguesí voices (19%), gossip (15%), cheap furniture (9%), music/radio (7%) and bad coffee (6%).

No pets please, weíre British
It would seem dogs are not manís best friend when it comes to the workplace: 86% of office workers disapprove of pets at work, 8% are neutral and just 6% approve.

Other pet hates include colleagues - a quarter of those surveyed would like to ban colleagues from their office, including ígossipsí, íwhingersí, and íegosí - and mobile phones, which 14% would like to see banished.

Family portraits are considered an acceptable addition to the office (98% approve), in contrast to celebrity pin ups and calendars (of which 64% disapprove), football memorabilia (52% disapproval rating) and posters (37%). Men are more disapproving of posters and pin-ups than women - surprisingly, this even extends to football posters!

Gary Wheeler, Director of Workplace, Gensler, said: The clear message from British office workers to their companies is that they know what they want from their offices, and work a lot more productively in quality office space.